• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Ipl 2025 Pbks To Sign Steve Smith As Captain Eyeing Two Uncapped Stars For Retention

IPL 2025: PBKS To Sign Steve Smith As Captain; Eyeing Two Uncapped Stars For Retention

Aakash Saini

Punjab Kings finished ninth in IPL 2024 [Source: @PunjabKingsIPL/x]Punjab Kings finished ninth in IPL 2024 [Source: @PunjabKingsIPL/x]

Story continues below ADVERTISEMENT

The Punjab Kings is on course to retain just two players ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. As reported by Cricbuzz, the franchise is currently eyeing the retentions of uncapped batters Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh.

Moreover, there are chances that the PBKS franchise might not even retain Indian fast bowler and 2024 T20 World Cup winning star Arshdeep Singh.

PBKS will go to mega auction with the highest purse

The Punjab Kings franchise will once again head into the IPL 2025 mega auction with the highest purse. As far as their retention policy goes, a Cricbuzz report indicates that the PBKS team management will only retain two uncapped cricketers in the form of Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh.

Arshdeep Singh, who has been an integral component of Punjab Kings’ fast bowling unit since his IPL debut in 2019, will likely not be retained by the franchise. As per the report, the franchise is of the opinion that they can acquire Arshdeep for a lesser value than the Rs.18 crore amount allotted for the top retention.

Moreover, newly-appointed head coach Ricky Ponting is trying to acquire legendary Australian batter Steve Smith and make him the new skipper of the franchise.

Under the multiple leaderships of Shikhar Dhawan and Sam Curran, the Punjab Kings finished at number nine on the 10-team IPL 2024 points table earlier this year. They managed to secure just five wins and coped nine defeats from 14 league matches.

Their disappointing campaign can be attributed to the collective failures of the senior batters of the team. While the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow failed to notch up the desired runs, uncapped batting guns Shashank Singh (354 runs) and Prabhsimran Singh (334 runs) emerged as their highest run-makers of the season.

Shashank and Prabhsimran’s batting performance may have likely compounded in their high retention chances ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.